From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Oct 21 19:21:08 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6FFF616A475 for ; Sun, 21 Oct 2007 19:21:08 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from laszlo_danielisz@yahoo.com) Received: from web30812.mail.mud.yahoo.com (web30812.mail.mud.yahoo.com [68.142.201.138]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 483EF13C48E for ; Sun, 21 Oct 2007 19:21:07 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from laszlo_danielisz@yahoo.com) Received: (qmail 54484 invoked by uid 60001); 21 Oct 2007 18:54:20 -0000 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=s1024; d=yahoo.com; h=X-YMail-OSG:Received:X-Mailer:Date:From:Reply-To:Subject:To:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Message-ID; b=LW+CCG0u8weyK+QMF3xdt/P08BmmxJ5M82by9p4K9TenEfAYkIh/XbScRIFjUWQvE6QhwCY2OFNZ4ls22Wn/3xBHMtGI4ve0SOKKgnXsYtYxuKA79pIzXGGG6Ue8GtOZhCqU3m1jLLfJhg4Bov5T0+sWhZx+54CqkuEtbGV6DYI=; X-YMail-OSG: 5WF98JMVM1lkM7TIOl9jDR67Mus6rVNWs1Q1wVfSvrwO5r7h6RccT8HGEnhOIiIxhdnSae7pVGoYUwNeOAgllIvhW1lUfWwz7.8UwQngaSsUOhQFEY8- Received: from [80.98.100.251] by web30812.mail.mud.yahoo.com via HTTP; Sun, 21 Oct 2007 11:54:20 PDT X-Mailer: YahooMailRC/814.06 YahooMailWebService/0.7.152 Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2007 11:54:20 -0700 (PDT) From: Danielisz Laszlo To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: <365298.53606.qm@web30812.mail.mud.yahoo.com> X-Mailman-Approved-At: Mon, 22 Oct 2007 11:53:33 +0000 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Subject: a dead process (a ``zombie'') X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Danielisz Laszlo List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2007 19:21:08 -0000 One day I was at a restaurant explaining process control to one of my disciples. I was mentioning how we have to kill the children (child processes) if they become unresponsive. Or we can even set an alarm for the children to kill themselves. That the parent need to wait (wait3) and acknowledge that the child has died or else it will become a zombie. The look of horror the woman sitting across had was unforgettable. I tried to explain it was a computer software thing but it was too late, she fled terrified, probably to call the police or something. I didn't really want to stick around too long to find out. From: man ps Z Marks a dead process (a ``zombie''). I found it on http://www.unixprogram.com/churchofbsd/index.html __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com